


A Crush?

by CoolDoggo



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: F/M, First Crush, Getting Together, Matchmaker Yuri Plisetsky, Mutual Pining, arospec otabek, confused feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-07 02:31:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15208895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoolDoggo/pseuds/CoolDoggo
Summary: Otabek might not know how to do romance, but luckily Yuri is here to help.





	A Crush?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aeiouna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeiouna/gifts).



> I hope you like what I wrote for you!!! <3 This is an idea I've been wanting to toy around with for ages, and when I saw your prompt and your ship request, I *knew* I had to do it!
> 
> Also, I really like the idea of Otabek being really socially awkward despite his bad boy persona. /)(\ I hope that's okay! 
> 
> And while I don't explicitly state it in the fic because I don't feel like Otabek and Yuri would use these terms with each other, I did write Otabek with the intention of him being gray-romantic in this fic, which is basically part of the aro-spectrum where romantic attraction is felt extremely rarely or under specific circumstances. ^^ Aro characters are very dear to my heart!

Otabek’s quiet. Not unusual by any means, but it’s the type of quiet Otabek does when he wants to say something, but isn’t quite sure how to say it. Yuri know this type of quiet very well, alongside the many other flavors of Otabek’s silence. Still, he’s impatient for what Otabek wants to say, and he’s half tempted to bark out a _well, spit it out already_ at him. He’s not a patient person by any means, and he certainly doesn’t have the patience to wait around all day for Otabek to say what’s on his mind.

Luckily, it doesn’t come to that. After what seems like a lifetime of awkward silence, Otabek stammers out, “Yuri. What’s Mila’s phone number? You have it, right?”

Yuri’s taken aback by the sudden request, and all he does is stare flabbergasted at Otabek’s question. “Eh? What do you want that hag’s number for?”

Otabek shrugs in response. “I don’t know. I see a lot of cool images online I think she’d like, so I want to show her.”

“Really? Is that all? Go ask her yourself.”

Suddenly, Otabek looks horrified, as if Yuri just asked him to go on some impossible mission not even NASA can complete. “I can’t do that!” He yells out.

Yuri gives him a look, a look that says _are you fucking kidding me right now_. “And why can’t you? She’s in the other room. Just go ask her.”

The horror on Otabek’s face only increases tenfold, and Yuri just wants to laugh at how ridiculous the whole situation is. “I can’t do that! She might think I’m weird!”

Now Yuri’s really laughing at how ridiculous the entire situation is, because clearly Otabek had zero issue with being weird when they first started talking, which to be fair, was one of the things that drew Yuri to Otabek in the first place. There’s just something so damn endearing about a man who has perfected the bad boy image, but is really just a socially awkward dweeb underneath the leather jackets and motorcycle grease. “Oh, and texting her a random image you found online out of the blue when you guys have barely spoken isn’t any less weird?”

It’s clear that Otabek hadn’t exactly thought that through, because all he does is frown while looking like Yuri just crushed all of his hopes and dreams in a single sentence.

Yuri can’t help but feel a little bad. “Why does it matter if she thinks you’re weird? When we first met you didn’t care about being weird, and trust me, you said a lot of weird shit to me which is exactly why I was like, you know what, I wanna be his friend.”

“I just think she’s cool and I really wanna get to know her better. We’ve only talked briefly a few times, but I don’t know, she’s just someone I want to get to know.” Otabek says with a slight shrug.

“Oh, and I’m not cool? Excuse you, I am the definition of coolness. You said so yourself. I have the eyes of a soldier. You don’t get much cooler than that.” Pulling Otabek’s leg is quite frankly, one of Yuri’s favorite hobbies.

Otabek promptly regrets asking Yuri for help. All he wanted was to have an excuse to talk to Mila, and his friend is currently being the opposite of helpful. In fact, Yuri is making him feel utterly dejected about the whole thing, but who else does he have to go to?

He sighs to himself, frustrated. “Forget I said anything. I’m gonna go practice more,” He mutters. Before Yuri even has a chance to respond, he sulks away.

Yuri just sits there, frowning to himself and tempted to chase after Otabek shouting apologies and begging for forgiveness. But no, that’s weird and awkward and he has a _much_ better idea to get back on Otabek’s good side. Why Otabek wants to talk to Mila, he has no idea, she’s an annoying old hag, but whatever, if Otabek wants to talk to her, he will get them to talk or his name isn’t Yuri Plisetsky. The day is coming to an end soon anyway, so he should be able to catch Mila by herself and not make things weird if he can manage to exhibit some semblance of patience and self control.

Luckily, he does manage to control himself, and he’s able to catch Mila walking out the door by herself.

“Mila!” He says running up to her.

“Oh! Yuri? What is it?” She says, immediately turning around and looking at him.

Maybe he should have thought about what he wanted to say beforehand, because now he realizes he has no idea how to request what he wants to request without making it painstakingly obvious.

But he’s Yuri after all, so maybe being painfully blunt is the best route to go.

“Look, I have a weird question, so I’m just going to be upfront.”

Mila raises a curious eyebrow at him, but waits patiently for his request.

“Can you talk to Otabek? He really wants to talk to you and he enjoys talking to you, but for whatever reason he’s being too shy to actually start a conversation because you might think he’s weird or something dumb like that.”

For whatever reason, Mila almost looks relieved once the request leaves Yuri’s lips, as if she was scared Yuri might request something absolutely outlandish and bizarre from her and is glad that it was actually something completely normal and doable.

In fact, she lets out a slight amused laugh at the request. “Really? Is that it? Oh, Otabek’s so sweet, I’d love to talk to him. To be honest, I’ve been wanting to talk to him more but he’s kind of intimidating! I kinda thought he hated me so I stopped trying to force him to talk to me.”

What a strange turn of events. Otabek wants to talk to Mila but he’s scared he’s being awkward and Mila wants to talk to Otabek but she’s scared he hates him. In any case, Yuri’s not gonna complain about it because this situation could have easily gone wrong and then it would just be awkward for everyone and it would have been entirely his fault.

“Well, whatever, just go find a way to talk to him. Just do me a favor and leave my name out of it. Like…don’t tell him I told you to talk to him, okay?”

Despite Otabek begging Yuri to give Mila’s number to him, Yuri really isn’t sure how Otabek would react to him telling her outright that he wanted to talk to her, so he’d rather not gamble with that. This is a very delicate situation here.

“I wouldn’t dream of it! I’ll see you tomorrow!” Mila says a bit too enthusiastically for Yuri’s liking. And of course, because she’s Mila, she ruffles Yuri’s hair before she scurries off.

Damnit, Otabek better appreciate this.

The next day, Yuri goes to look for Otabek to beg him for cash. He _really_ wants a bag of chips from the vending machine, but the machine won’t take his money because he only has larger bills, but damnit, he wants chips! This is injustice and he won’t stand for it!

He searches everywhere for Otabek. He searches all the break rooms, the locker room, the cafeteria, the rink, everywhere he can think of. Sadly, there’s absolutely no trace of Otabek, which means he may or may not get his chips. Finally, he spots Otabek outside, and he’s with...Mila? They both look like they’re enjoying themselves, and he can hear their laughter. Suddenly, his dire need for potato chips doesn’t seem quite as dire, and he decides he’ll go pester someone else for potato chips. Maybe Georgi? Yeah, he’ll go bother Georgi. Mila and Otabek are enjoying themselves.

A few days later, Otabek nearly gives Yuri a heart attack. Yuri was just minding his own business, enjoying his solitude when Otabek comes out of nowhere and says, “Yuri! She gave me her number.” in the quietest, most panicked yelling voice Yuri has ever heard.

He’s so startled all he can say is, “Who? Mila?”

Of course it’s Mila. Who else would Otabek be talking about?

“Yes! I have her number!”

“...And? That’s it?” Yuri asks.

“What do you mean, that’s it?”

“You didn’t ask her out or anything? I mean, someone giving you their number would be the perfect opportunity to ask them on a date or something, don’t you think?”

Otabek makes a face at him, slightly scrunched up in an expression that can only be described as disgust or bewilderment that Yuri would even have the audacity to suggest such a thing.

“Why would I ask her out on a date? I just want to friends with her! Dating is a waste of time. I just think she’s cool.”

“Right, you just think she’s cool.”

Yuri decides not to press the subject further. It’s not his business, and all Otabek wanted in the end was Mila’s number, and Mila’s number he got. As far as Yuri was concerned, this matter was over and resolved.

However, over the next few weeks, Yuri listens to Otabek talk about Mila, thinks about the ways he’s spoken about her before. He sees the way he looks at her, softly and with stars in his eyes. In all his time of knowing Otabek, and despite the fact Yuri considers himself somewhat of an Otabek expert, he’s never seen his friend act this way around anyone. It’s strange, seeing him act this way.

So of course, he has to ask.

“You really like her, don’t you?”

Otabek stares at him, confused by his question, as if it came out of nowhere or he was spouting utter nonsense.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play stupid! You’re totally into her!” Yuri barks back.

Otabek continues staring at Yuri, unable to make any sort of sense of what Yuri is getting at. “I just think she’s cool and I like spending time with her!” He says back, starting to get a bit defensive.

Yuri simply huffs and rolls his eyes. “Yeah, and yet you fumble around like a moron whenever you gotta talk to her. You can’t shut up about how great she is. The way you talk about her is different than when you talk about anyone else. It’s obvious you like her.”

“I mean, I think she’s cool like I keep saying? I just want to be closer to her. It doesn’t mean anything beyond that! Are you suggesting I have a crush on her or something dumb like that? If that’s what you’re getting at, you’re wrong. I’ve never had a crush before and I certainly don’t have one now.”

Sigh. This was going to be a long, long conversation. Yuri inhales deeply before he says, “Look. Regardless of whether or not you want to admit to having a crush on her, you like her. You want something more from her than you want from the average person. People don’t get stupid over other people unless they have some sort of dumb feelings bullshit going on, and no offence, but you’ve definitely gotten stupid over her. That’s like the key thing that shows you like someone. You turn into a fucking moron around them and you start losing brain cells every time you talk or think about them, and it sucks because they are all you can think about so you just end up stupider and stupider.”

Otabek can’t help but laugh at how Yuri speaks. It’s so matter of factly, as if this is a topic Yuri has had plenty of intimate and hidden knowledge with.

“What’s so funny?” He immediately asks.

“No, it’s just, you sound like you speak from experience.” Suddenly, Otabek gets a look on his face, as if he reached a sudden epiphany. Yuri sees the look, and can only think _oh no_ to himself.

“I have to ask, do you have a crush on someone?”

Suddenly, Yuri’s face flushes red. Damn the fact he’s always been prone to blushing with embarrassment. Still, it’s Otabek of all people asking this, and Yuri would just about trust Otabek with his life, so instead of getting defensive or snippy he simply plays with the hem of his shirt and mutters out, “I do. I’ve had a crush on someone for a while, longer than I’ve known you for, so that’s how I know all of this, okay?! You should be thankful I have suffered all this time so I can give you my invaluable wisdom!”

“...Can I ask who it is?”

Yuri’s immediate glare makes Otabek recoil and instead tells him, you know what, nevermind.

In typical Yuri fashion, he wastes no time getting back to the subject at hand.

“So, because I’ve been suffering with an unrequited crush for so long, that’s how I can tell you like her. Call it whatever the fuck you want, I don’t care, but at least own up to the fact you like her in a way that’s not normal for you.”

Otabek stays quiet for a moment, before he quietly asks, “...How do you know if you have a crush on someone?” He sounds nervous, as if he’s afraid to confront the reality of his feelings.

“I told you, you get stupid. You say dumb shit around them and you actually regret saying the dumb shit around them. You want to impress them, and I don’t know, you just feel it in your body. Suddenly every dumb thing online reminds you of them. You listen to certain songs and you think of them. I don’t know, for me I tolerate their dumb shit more too. Things that would annoy me if someone else did them, when the person I like does it, it doesn’t seem so bad. It’s...tolerable.”

Yuri goes quiet for a moment before he adds on, “And honestly, if you have to ask if you have feelings for someone or not, you probably do. So I don’t know, get used to it because mine have stuck around for _years_.”

A moment of silence passes between them, and then Otabek quietly mutters, “Fuck. I never thought I’d end up with feelings for someone.”

All Yuri does in response is give him a pat on the back and says, “Welp, sucks to be you. Welcome to the club. Your options are confessing, stewing on it for years and years and years, or hoping you get the fuck over it.”

However, Yuri has a fourth option in mind, one that he knows Otabek would absolutely object to should he say it outloud. The good thing about Otabek’s situation is that, unlike his own, Otabek’s love life isn’t a lost cause. He actually has a reasonable chance of shit working out for him. So instead of letting his poor best friend suffer the same unrequited fate he has suffered, Yuri decides he’s going to be a bit more...proactive. The chance of Otabek actually doing anything is next to none. He’s an inexperienced moron who’s experiencing baby’s first crush in his early 20’s.

A few days later, Yuri manages to catch Mila by herself, a rare sight these days considering she and Otabek are practically joined at the hip when Otabek isn’t hanging out with Yuri himself.

Unfortunately, subtlely has never been Yuri’s strong suite. After they say their hellos to each other, he immediately blurts out, “So, Otabek, what do you think of him.”

Thankfully, it’s Mila he’s talking to and Mila’s never had any sort of shame or any semblance of privacy about her romantic interests.

“He’s pretty great. I don’t know why I thought he was so intimidating. I still think he kinda hates me at times, but then he’ll say or do something really sweet and I’m not quite sure what to make of it. I guess you can say he’s kind of hard to read.”

Yuri can’t help but laugh. Is he really the only person on the entire planet who can read Otabek just fine? Or maybe he just sucks at reading people point blank and just says whatever dumb shit is on his mind. Maybe that is also a possibility. “You get used to it,” is all he says in response.

Mila lets out a small laugh in return. “Yeah, you do. I’m slowly getting a better hang on him. He’s an interesting person. You think he’s someone who’s gonna be a total badass but then you talk to him and he’s actually kind of awkward, but that’s why he’s so adorable. He was recently telling me about his snapple cap collection the other day from when he used to live in North America.”

Oh yes. Otabek’s prized snapple cap collection. Yuri knows all about those damn snapple caps and their stupid facts.

What’s the most obvious way to say _Hey, my friend wants to get closer to you because he may or may not have a crush on you_ without outright saying it? Despite the fact that subtly was never Yuri’s strong point, he at least prides himself on having a bit more tact than that.

Luckily, Mila has always been good at filling the gaps in social conversation, because she begins to say, “I don’t know. I really want to get to know him better. He’s interesting.”

Perfect. Mila’s practically doing the hard work for him. “Ask him out then!” He immediately blurts out.

Mila looks Yuri in surprise. “Ask him out? Is he really interested in that sort of thing? I mean, I would love to, but he doesn’t really seem all that interested in that sort of thing. Whenever I try to flirt with him he doesn’t respond ever.”

Of course Otabek doesn’t respond to Mila’s flirting. He can barely recognize his own feelings, much less realize someone else has feelings for him. This is all so typical. Yuri’s practically jumping down Mila’s throat at this sudden turn of events. “Yes! Ask him out! If things get awkward, you can absolutely blame me. Ask him to go get coffee or something, or maybe he’ll let you ride his motorcycle or something. I don’t know.”

It’s obvious that Mila is a bit unsure that Yuri’s advice is actually good or not, but after a few minutes of internal debate, she says, “Well, you’re his best friend after all so I guess you would know best. I really do wanna ask him out, so I guess this is the sign I’ve been waiting for.”

Yuri wants to jump with joy. “Just don’t come off too strongly and make things weird, okay? Keep it casual and tell him you wanna take the opportunity to get to know him better, and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

Otabek is still a baby with dealing with these kinds of feelings after all. The last thing he wants is for Mila to completely scare him off, and knowing Mila, that is a very real possibility.

Mila laughs again in response. “Gotcha! Will do! Well, wish me luck then!” She says with a bit of a flirtatious wink.

“And remember, this conversation between us didn’t happen at all, okay?”

“Your secret is safe with me!”

Sigh. This better be worth it.

The rest of the week goes by agonizingly slow. Did Mila ever ask him out? Yuri doesn’t know! Otabek hasn’t said anything and Yuri’s not about to ask in case he reveals himself as meddling in their business.

Late one night, when Yuri is sprawled out on his couch watching trashy reality TV, he gets a sudden phone call from Otabek. Surprising, since Otabek is never one to call.

“I think Mila and I just had a date.”

Otabek doesn’t even bother saying hello.

“You think you and her just had a date? How can you not know? I had no idea you guys even had something planned.”

A half lie.

“Yeah. We went out for coffee, and then we just kinda walked around the park for a while. We made these plans a few days ago but I thought she just wanted to hang out, but then while we were drinking coffee she told me she wanted to get to know me better, like, to get closer to me or something.”

Oh god, he can only hope Otabek didn’t screw this up.

“What did you say?”

“I told her I agreed, that it would be nice if we could get closer to each other. So afterward we went to the park and walked around and talked like we usually do, but then I panicked and asked her if this was a date?”

Oh, this is getting good.

“What did she say?”

“She said it can be if I want it to be, she wouldn’t mind calling it a date. So I said yeah, it can be a date because I mean, that’s what people do to get closer right? We made plans to do it again next week. What are dates even supposed to feel like anyway? It didn’t feel any different than hanging out, but it felt...nicer I guess? More intimate?”

“You’re asking the wrong person, Beka. I’ve literally never been on a date.”

“Right.”

Yuri has to ask. He just has to. “Are you gonna ask her out any time soon? I think you should. I think she would like that. To be honest, I think she really likes you.”

Otabek doesn’t have to know that Yuri knows for a fact that Mila likes him, but anything to actually get these two idiots together.

It’s cute, Yuri can practically see Otabek blushing on the other side of the phone. “I can’t do that! We’ve only been on one...kind of date? I don’t know. I think it would be nice to ask her out though. I’ve thought about it a lot and...I think I really do have a crush on her. It’s weird.”

“Well, go on a few more dates with her and then you can ask her out. There’s no reason to rush things. Take your time I guess, really. I mean I really have no advice because I’m forever stuck Ii the unrequited romance land, but I don’t know, maybe you’ll just know when the time is right. Or she’ll ask first. Who knows.”

Yuri can only pray Mila asks first, because who knows how long Otabek will take to actually ask Mila out. As interesting as the entire development has been, Yuri is getting really exhausted by the whole thing. Still, he’s happy that Otabek seems happy, but damnit, he just wants things to go back to normal because playing cupid is _not_ where he skills lie.

A few short months pass, and nothing really seems to change. Yuri keeps leaving some not so subtle hints that they should just ask each other out at this point, and he considers just barging in and demanding they ask each other out, but no, he must be patient.

Luckily for him, Otabek waltzes in the breakroom during practice one day and announces to Yuri, “So, I think Mila is my girlfriend now. She asked me out and I said yes so I think we are dating now? Is that how this works?”

“Congratulations. That is exactly how it works. You two are now a couple, or whatever the hell you wanna call yourselves.

Really, he wishes the best for them, and he hopes this is the start of something lovely for the both of them. There’s just something so nice about your best friend finding his first puppy love and having it being requited that Yuri finds surprisingly endearing. He sits there, listening to Otabek babble on about his new relationship, feeling a bit haughty in the sense of _Oh yeah. I did good. This is completely my doing. These two idiots better appreciate what I did behind the scenes_.

But more importantly, he hopes Otabek will finally stop being stupid. Between his own crush, and Mila and Otabek’s crushes on each other, he’s had enough of dumb crushes to last a lifetime.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
